


Protect

by orphan_account



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Araxie Don't Look, Don't Read If You Don't Want to Watch Mabel Get Tortured, Family, Gen, Guns, How Do I Tag, I'm bad at ending fics, It has a bit of a fluffy ending tho so yay, Protective Grunkle Ford, Rico comes back, Stan has a little bit of a memory lapse, The ending isn't the best, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 02:30:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8826904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Rico's found Stan, and he wants payment. Just, not the kind of payment Stan was expecting.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that there is a strong element of torture and violence in this story. If you can't handle it then please don't read it.

When winter break rolled around, Dipper and Mabel were asked if they wanted to go back to Gravity Falls to see Stan and Ford once more and spend Christmas with them, as long as they video-called their parents every day for at least an hour, and an hour and a half on Christmas day. The kids happily agreed.

The day after they got there, Ford took Dipper out to show him a “very interesting species” that “hibernates through the vernal and estival months” and is “alert through the autumnal and hibernal months”. Mabel decided to make cupcakes, and Stan claimed the TV.

She was just putting the finishing touches on the blue-iced, glitter-topped confectionary masterpieces when somebody knocked on the door. “Can you get that for your Grunkle Stan, sweetie?” Stan called over his show.

“Yep!” Mabel replied, and carefully set down the bottle of edible glitter to run and open the door. “Hi!” she said. “Can we help you?”

“We’ve come to see Stan,” a large, muscular (but kinda old) man said, folding his arms.

“Grunkle Stan,” Mabel called, not taking her eyes off of the man at the door. “There’s someone at the door to see you.”

“The Shack is closed today,” Stan replied from the living room where he was watching  _ The Duchess Approves  _ for the millionth time. “We’re not accepting customers.”

“Okay.” She looked back up at the old, tan-skinned, black-bearded guy. “Grunkle Stan says we’re not accepting customers. But you can come in, I just made some cupcakes. Are you a friend of my Grunkle?”

The guy looked at the other two men standing behind him. “Yeah,” he said with a grin, “sure, we’ll come in.”

“Okay!” Mabel beamed and led them to the kitchen. “Grunkle Stan, I let them in anyway. They want some of my cupcakes. They say they’re friends of yours. Wanna come say hi?”

“Gimme a minute, just got to the best part.”

She heard it before she saw it--a sinister  _ click. _ She turned to see that her nose was an inch away from the barrel of the pistol the man held. “G-Grunkle Stan? Y-you might wanna come say hi,” she stammered.

“One minute, sweetie.”

“Grunkle Stan--”

“Stan Pinington, you have a debt to repay,” the man shouted. “Get out here or she gets it.”

There was a long silence. The show stopped blaring from the living room. Slow, careful steps were heard moving towards the kitchen. “Who are you?” Stan’s voice said.

“You know who I am. Now get out here.”

One of the thugs huffed. “Should I get him, boss?”

“No. Let him come to me.” Mabel watched the man’s lips curl upward in an evil smile. “I want to see the look on his face when he sees who this little girl’s let in.”

“Ahaha...you guys  _ are  _ his  _ friends,  _ right?” Mabel asked nervously.

The man laughed hoarsely. “Hah! Can’t you tell a lie when you hear one, sweetheart?” The pet name was dripping with malicious glee. “We just said that so you’d let us in without a fight.”

“Who are you?” Mabel gasped, at the same time that Stan walked into the kitchen.

“Rico,” Stan intoned. His voice held no expression, but when Mabel looked at her Grunkle, she saw the same look in his eyes that he’d had when she’d been about to press that button: fear. “What are you doing here?”

“Stan Pinington,” Rico sneered. “It’s been thirty years. You remember that debt you owed me?”

Stan’s face was blank. “What debt?”

“The debt! The money you took from me!”

“I don’t remember ever borrowing money from you, Rico.”

“Ungh,” Rico groaned to one of his men, “he’s senile.”

“Hey! My Grunkle isn’t senile!” Mabel shouted directly to the gun barrel. “He’s been through a lot, that’s all!”

“Don’t test me, kid,” Rico growled. The trigger finger twitched warningly.

“Hey! Let her go! I’ll get you the money, however much you need. I might not remember, but I should pay it off…if you’ll let her go.”

“Oh, we’re not looking for money, Pinington. It’s been too long to be about money anymore. I want you to  _ hurt. _ ”

“Fine.” Stan stepped forward, spread his arms. It reminded Mabel painfully of when he’d made a deal with Bill, when Ford had erased her favorite Grunkle’s memory, when he’d just stood there and waited to be lost forever. “Do what you want, but let my niece go.”

“Hmm.” Rico’s face split into a sharklike grin. “No, I think the best way to hurt  _ you _ is to hurt  _ her. _ ” The man’s smile hurt to look at, it stretched so wide. Stan felt something akin to ice stab into his heart as he saw Mabel’s face freeze with fear. He was about to take a step forward, to break out the old knuckle-dusters and go down fighting and protecting the most precious thing in his life, when he heard the door open.

“Grunkle Stan! Mabel! Grunkle Ford and I are back!” Dipper’s voice called.

Rico swore. “Make them go away,” he growled to Stan, prodding Mabel’s forehead threateningly with the gun.

“Ah...yeah. Ford! Take Dipper out shopping, we’re out of…” He faltered.

“Sprinkles!” Mabel said frantically. “I ran out of sprinkles for my cupcakes.”

“Alright!” Ford replied chipperly. “Come on, my boy.”

The door closed, and Rico grinned. “Good.” His tone was patronizing and practically oozed hatred. “Now, down to business.”

With a slow and calculating smile, he placed the gun on the counter. Then he reared back and struck Mabel hard across the face. The girl screamed and stumbled back and Stan yelled in outrage, but Rico reached threateningly for the gun and said, “Ah, ah. Palo, Lanzo, hold him. Don't want to spoil our revenge.”

Stan struggled and thrashed as the goons grabbed hold of his arms, his fury and fear so intense that he nearly pulled the men over before they could securely grasp him. “I’ll kill you!” he screamed as Rico struck Mabel again. “I’ll kill all of you!”

“Say, boys,” Rico said, ignoring Stan, who continued to pull at the muscular arms of Palo and Lanzo, “what do you say we do to this little girl?”

“Break her fingers,” one grunted gleefully.

“One by one,” the other agreed.

“No,” Stan begged, all the fight leaving him, “no, no, please, no.” There was a chasm in his chest, a whole Grand Canyon splitting his heart in half as he realized that his begging just egged the man on and his Pumpkin was going to be hurt because of  _ him. _

Rico advanced on Mabel, the smile curving up, up, up, holding nothing but evil as Mabel backed up into a wall, huddled, turned her face away like a frightened animal. “Now, now,” Rico said almost soothingly, “we don’t want your uncle to get hurt because you won’t cooperate, right?”

Mabel whimpered, but uncurled herself and stood facing Rico. Her face was red from Rico’s slaps as well as her tears. The gang leader grabbed her right hand and turned to face Stan. 

“This,” he said, slowly bending her pinky finger back, “is for giving us to the police.” The finger broke with a sick  _ snap. _ Like the noise was a stage cue, Mabel’s face went white as a ghost. “And this,” he continued, grin growing wider as he moved on to the girl’s ring finger, “is for stealing my money.”  _ Snap.  _ Stan felt Mabel’s resulting groan resound through his own body and his eyes welled up with tears. “This is for selling us out to Marco--yes, I know all about that.”  _ Crack.  _ A small cry. Stan thought he was going to vomit. “This finger--” the index-- “is for running away.”  _ Snap. _ Another noise from Mabel. She looked like she was going to pass out. “And this--” here he grabbed her entire hand and began to bend it backward-- “is for still being  _ alive!” _ The wrist broke with a  _ crunch. _ Mabel shrieked and began to sob, clawing fruitlessly at Rico with her undamaged hand.

That was it. Stan, with an insurmountable surge of utter rage, let out a roar and broke free of Palo and Lanzo. In an instant, he was on Rico, tearing Mabel away and throwing punches as he knocked the gang leader to the ground. The anger pumped through his veins, drove his fists hard, made him scream with such intensity that he choked on blood. And echo near his face, like that of a gunshot…? Was he hit? He didn't care. The only sounds at the forefront of his mind were Mabel’s screams, the sick crack of bones, and Rico’s malicious laughter. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been punching his fists into Rico’s face before somebody was pulling him off, somebody with six fingers and a familiar voice, and Stan sat back on his knees and sobbed at his bruised and bloody hands and the thug next to him lying dead from a gunshot to the throat and the idea that  _ that could have been Mabel _ .

“Stanley?” Ford said softly. “Who are these people? What happened to Mabel?”

Stan didn’t answer, only shook his head; he couldn’t trust himself to speak.

“They’re bad people Stan used to know,” Mabel murmured, cradling her arm. “They wanted to make him pay something back...so they hurt me.”

Dipper was panicking. “Oh gosh, oh gosh,” he gasped. “Did you…I mean, is he….”

“He's still alive,” Ford said, his voice like stone. “Good.”

“Why’s it--?” Dipper began.

Ford hauled the man up by his collar, like they did in the movies. “Greetings,” he said to the bleary-eyed Rico. “I'm Stan’s brother. I'm a criminal in over a hundred dimensions. I have killed more demons, monsters, and men than you could ever dream of. And I am not pleased with you.”

Rico’s eyes barely had time to widen in shock before they rolled back and closed once more with the force of Ford’s six-fingered punch.

* * *

One police call, one emergency room trip, a lot of paperwork, and one video-call home later, the four sat on the sofa in the living room and ate Mabel’s delicious cupcakes while Stan explained who Rico was. “So there I was,” he said with a dramatic sweep of his arms, “stuck between bein’ killed by Rico or tryin’ to find somewhere I wasn't banned from, when I received a postcard in the mail. And who do you think it was?”

“Grunkle Ford!” Mabel cheered. “He saved you from Rico!”

“That I did, in a roundabout way,” Ford said rather sheepishly.

“And you little gremlins know the rest,” Stan concluded with two affectionate noogies. “So. Movie night?”

“Yeah!” Dipper and Mabel cheered.

“I get to choose!” Mabel shouted.

“Hey, no, you chose last time!”

“But I wanna watch  _ Elf _ !”

“We just watched that!”

While the kids fought, Ford leaned his head on Stan’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “It’s my fault. All my fault.”

“Hey. Sixer.” Stan made Ford look up at him. “I already told ya I forgive you. So just...have this moment, okay?”

Ford looked at Mabel’s casted and splinted hand, then at her smile. She was still happy. “Okay.” He laughed a little. “Promise me nobody else is going to come looking for you with murderous intent?”

“No promises, Poindexter,” Stan grinned.

“Well, then, I’ll just have to be home all the time, so I can protect you and Mabel and Dipper.”

“Eh, you don’t have to. I can protect us just fine.”

“Maybe...we can protect this family together.”

“Heh, alright...yeah. Together.”

Snow began to gently fall outside, protecting Gravity Falls from the prying eyes of the outside world...or was it protecting the eyes of the outside world from Gravity Falls?

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me a kudo if you thought my writing was okay! Leave me a review with any constructive criticism you might have!


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